Influences of background factors on consumers' purchase intention in China's organic food market: Assessing moderating role of word-of-mouth (WOM)

Li, Shimiao; Nor Siah Jaharuddin Article Influences of background factors on consumers' purchase intention in China's organic food market: Assessing moderating role of word-of-mouth (WOM) Cogent Business & Management Provided in Cooperation with: Taylor & Francis Group Suggested Citation: Li, Shimiao; Nor Siah Jaharuddin (2021) : Influences of background factors on consumers' purchase intention in China's organic food market: Assessing moderating role of word- of-mouth (WOM), Cogent Business & Management, ISSN 2331-1975, Taylor & Francis, Abingdon, Vol. 8, Iss. 1, pp. 1-26, https://doi.org/10.1080/23311975.2021.1876296 This Version is available at: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/270209 Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen: Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden. 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This open access article is distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) 4.0 license. Published online: 29 Jan 2021. Submit your article to this journal Article views: 8167 View related articles View Crossmark data Citing articles: 13 View citing articles MARKETING | RESEARCH ARTICLE Influences of background factors on consumers’ purchase intention in China’s organic food market: Assessing moderating role of word-of- mouth (WOM) Shimiao Li 1 * and Nor Siah Jaharuddin 1 Abstract: The present study aims to clarify how background factors influence consumers’ intention of purchasing organic food from individual, social, and information perspectives (i.e., health consciousness, self-perceived vegetarian, as well as labeling). Another aim is to explore the moderating role of word-of-mouth (WOM) in relationship between purchase intention and purchase decision to fill in the intention-behavior gap in the field of behavior of purchasing organic food. The data were acquired through purposive sampling method by distributing questionnaires among organic food consumers. 280 out of 306 questionnaires were valid to proceed to statistical analysis. All proposed hypotheses were verified through structural equation modeling (SEM) and SPSS PROCESS regression analysis. As suggested from the study results, except for hedonistic motivation factor, the other background factors (i.e., individual, social, and information) significantly impacted consumers’ purchase intention. Moreover, the relationship between purchase intention and purchase decision was significantly moderated by word-of-mouth (WOM). The present study sheds light on how to motivate consumers’ purchase intention by stressing vital background factors from individual (i.e., purchase attitude and health Shimiao Li ABOUT THE AUTHOR Shimiao Li is a PhD candidate in department of management and marketing at the University Putra Malaysia. Her research interests are focused on consumer purchase behavior, O2O business and social media marketing. Her works are available in the journals of International Services, Economics and Management and Frontiers of Business Research in China. She can be reached via [email protected] Dr. Nor Siah Jaharuddin is a senior lecturer in department of management and marketing at the University Putra Malaysia. She is specialized in areas of operation management and strategic management. She has published numerous journals in international platforms, such as Advance Science Letters, The Social Science, and International Journal of Accounting, Business and Management. Besides, many of her papers have been presented at conferences such as ICMEF, GCBER, and ICSSR. She can be reached via nor- [email protected]. PUBLIC INTEREST STATEMENT In recent 5 years, organic food market expanded so fast in developed cities of China, it is noticed that organic food are available not only in organic specialty stores but almost in each supermarket. Consequently, more and more Chinese consumers started being enthusiastic about purchasing organic food, especially for people who have strong awareness of health and food safety concerns. However, very limited study explores influencing factors that drive consumers purchase intention towards organic food by a systematic way in study background of China. Thus, this study each influencing factor is categorized into different background factors from perspectives of individual, social, and information, which can give a relatively clear and systematic study regarding to consumers organic food purchase behavior. Moreover, this study also provides insights into how to motivate consumers purchase decision towards organic food by incorporating moderating effect of WOM. Li & Jaharuddin, Cogent Business & Management (2021), 8: 1876296 https://doi.org/10.1080/23311975.2021.1876296 Page 1 of 26 Received: 19 November 2020 Accepted: 08 January 2021 *Corresponding author: Shimiao Li, Department of Management and Marketing, School of Business and Economics, University Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM, Serdang, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia E-mail:[email protected] Reviewing editor: WŁodzimierz Sroka, WSB University, POLAND Additional information is available at the end of the article © 2021 The Author(s). This open access article is distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) 4.0 license. consciousness), social (i.e., self-perceived vegetarian and environmental concern), and information perspectives (i.e., labeling and social media information). Besides, a novel insight is presented for marketers on how to deepen the relationship between consumers’ purchase intention and purchase decision via the moderating effect of word-of-mouth (WOM). Subjects: Business, Management and Accounting; International Business; Marketing Keywords: organic food; background factors; purchase intention; purchase decision; word- of-mouth (WOM); consumers in China 1. Introduction As people’s living standards are being elevated, considerable consumers start to be enthusiastic about purchasing organic food for themselves, as well as for their families’ long-term health (Rana & Paul, 2017). Given the development of organic food market worldwide in 2017, China has been listed as the first leading nation by organic agriculture area (3 million hectares) (Sahota, 2018). Moreover, in 3-million-hectare organic agriculture area, FiBL and IFOAM—Organics International (2019) reported that China was ranked the leading nation of organic cereal (96.3 million hectares) and temperate fruit productions (22,400 hectares). In addition, China has a considerable Asian organic food market. To be specific, China’s overall organic packaged food and beverages market in 2017 introduced nearly USD 2.84 billion in sales, and organic standard milk dominated overall value sales, taking up over 71% of all market value (FiBL and IFOAM—Organics International, 2019). Accordingly, it is projected that China has a considerable organic food market in years ahead (Daxueconsulting.com, 2020). Besides, food scandals and health scares are considered major drivers of Chinese consumers in China to purchase organic food among (Pei et al., 2011). Nonetheless, how specific background factors motivate consumers to purchase organic food as a long-term diet habit in China has been rarely studied. In the area of consumers’ behavior of food purchase, theory of planned behavior (Ajzen, 1991) is suggested as the most widely used theory to determine the relationships between purchase factors (i.e., purchase attitude, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control) and purchase intention (Alam & Sayuti, 2011; Dowd & Burke, 2013; Qi & Ploeger, 2019). Except for applying original variables in TPB as a necessary theoretical support in studying consumers’ purchase intention and purchase decision, more scholars introduced new factors based on the theoretical framework of TPB to broaden TPB from multi-perspectives. Nardi et al. (2019) conducted a metaanalysis regarding consumers’ food choice based on TPB, indicating that consumers’ intention of purchasing food is effectively motivated by food origin, life cycle, involving technology, healthcare, ethical concern, and convenience matter. The result of the present study is reflected in numerous studies. For instance, Haro (2016) asserted that availability and information are identified as another two motives in driving consumers’ intention of purchasing Halal food. In support, Ali et al. (2018) indicated that perceived availability in line with personal conviction are closely related to Chinese Muslim’s intention of purchasing Halal food. Moreover, technology awareness is emphasized in studies on consumers’ intention of purchasing genetically modified food (Zhang et al., 2018). Country of origin (COO) is another frequently discussed factor in studying consumers’ intention of purchasing fresh food, foreign food, Halal food, and imported functional food (Holdershaw & Konopka, 2018; Muhamad et al., 2017; Sagheb et al., 2020; Xin & Seo, 2019). Moreover, extended TPB is also widely applied in studying consumers’ intention of purchasing organic food. Yadav and Pathak (2016) added moral attitude as another critical factor by complying with the concept of purchase attitude to deeply study the type of attitude most significantly impacting young consumers’ intention of purchasing organic food. Except for discussing the roles of attitude, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control (PBC) in consumers’ intention of purchasing organic food, Dangi et al. (2020) considered health motives, past purchase behavior, Li & Jaharuddin, Cogent Business & Management (2021), 8: 1876296 https://doi.org/10.1080/23311975.2021.1876296 Page 2 of 26 knowledge, affordability, and trust in organic food certificate as main facilitators in organic food purchase. Given this study, environmental concern and health consciousness are considered the most frequently discussed factors of consumers’ intention of purchasing organic food, then followed by price, knowledge, labeling, and certificate issue (Asif et al., 2018; Essoussi & Zahaf, 2008; Grimmer et al., 2016). However, factors of organic food purchase intention are found to require a clear category criteria, as considered a hindrance of studying behavior of purchasing organic food systematically. Therefore, the present study aims to investigate impacts of background factors on consumers’ intention of purchasing organic food from individual, social, and information perspectives in organic food market of China by applying extended TPB and reasoned action model (Fishbein & Ajzen, 2011) to comparatively conduct a clearer and systematic study, which is of high importance but rarely studied in existing literature. As aforementioned, factors of consumers’ purchase intention have been extensively discussed in various contexts. However, existing literature ignored the gap existing in the relationship between intention and behavior (decision). Futerra (2005) claimed that consumers’ purchase behavior (decision) is not always directly predicted by purchase intention, i.e., purchase intention might not transit to purchase behavior (decision) straightforward. Accordingly, the present study intends to fill in intention-decision gap regarding organic food purchase by introducing a moderating effect in it. According to existing studies, word-of-mouth (WOM) has been considered more reliable and trustworthy information than messages generated from advertising and marketers (Bansal & Voyer, 2000; Carl, 2006; Filieri, 2015; Li et al., 2013). Consequently, consumers are inclined to exploit such information as an essential reference when making final purchase decision (Park, Lee, & Han, 2007; Sen & Lerman, 2007; T. Sun et al., 2006). Given the significance of direct effect of WOM on purchase decision, WOM is studied as a moderating role to investigate whether it can deepen the relationship between purchase intention and purchase decision on organic food. 2. Theoretical framework 2.1. Theory of planned behavior TPB was originally proposed by Icek Ajzen in 1985, an extension by complying with the theory of reasoned action (Fishbein & Ajzen, 1975). It refers to a theoretically structured framework assessing and clarifying human’s behavior in terms of beliefs and attitudes (Ajzen, 1991). Specific to TPB, human’s behavioral intention is significantly driven by attitude, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control (PBC), where human’s behavior is significantly impacted by behavioral intention (Fishbein & Ajzen, 2011). Moreover, attitude refers to individual’s opinion on whether a specific behavior is good or bad, positive or negative, favorable or adverse; subjective norms represent perceived social impacts or pressures, which refer to opinions and, to some extent, the approval of family, friends, co-workers, and any other person whom trusts; PBC can be defined as the ability to control specific behavior, i.e., the perceived “difficulty of declining the invitation” (Ajzen, 1985, p. 26). In the area of food marketing, it was extensively found that the impact of purchase attitude significantly reaches over those of subjective norms and PBC in consumers’ purchase intention (Bashir et al., 2019; Jaafar et al., 2012; Singh & Verma, 2017). Furthermore, it is found that factors of consumers’ purchase intention aroused huge attention from most studies, whilst purchase intention is less likely to link purchase decision by applying extended TPB (Maichum et al., 2016; Othman & Rahman, 2014; H. Y. Kim & Chung, 2011). Given the significance of attitude, behavioral intention, and actual behavior in TPB as theoretical support, purchase attitude is studied as one of the individual factors of consumers’ intention of purchasing organic food; furthermore, the relationship between purchase intention and purchase decision is also further explored in line with moderator to give a holistic study based on TPB (Ajzen, 1991). 2.2. Reasoned action model In the premise of TPB, reasoned action model was developed by Fishbein and Ajzen in 2010 (Fishbein & Ajzen, 2011). Compared with original TPB, RAM introduces background factors imposed Li & Jaharuddin, Cogent Business & Management (2021), 8: 1876296 https://doi.org/10.1080/23311975.2021.1876296 Page 3 of 26 on human beliefs; moreover, practical control is implemented in the relationships between perceived behavioral control and behavior. According to Fishbein and Ajzen (2011), background factors fall to three aspects, including individual factors (i.e., personality, mood, emotion, values, general attitude, perceived risk, and past behavior), social factors (i.e., education, age, gender, religion, ethnicity, and culture) as well as information factors (i.e., knowledge, media, and intervention). Jaccard (2012) asserted that RAM has a quite high influential power in social and health sciences. More importantly, RAM encourages researchers to delve into each individual background factor based on different perspectives, rather than through traditional modeling (Jaccard, 2012). Given this, the present study seeks to investigate how selected background factors impact consumers’ intention of purchasing organic food from individual, social, and information perspectives by applying RAM, whereas extant studies are less stressed. 3. Literature review and hypotheses development 3.1. Influences of individual factors on purchase intention ●Purchase attitude and purchase intention Based on TPB, “attitude” refers to an individual’s attitude or opinion, i.e., whether a specific behavior is good or bad, positive or negative, or favorable or adverse (Ajzen, 1991). In marketing studies, attitude complying with TPB is tightly associated with purchase intention, and numerous studies proved that in various shopping situations, consumer purchase attitude either positively or adversely affects intention of purchasing specific products (Hartmann & Apaolaza-Ibáñez, 2012; Lee Bonn, & Cho, 2015; Phua & Kim, 2018; Pisitsankkhakarn & Vassanadumrongdee, 2020). Recent studies determined the role of attitude in TPB to gain insights into its predictive power on organic food purchase intention. A wide range of studies proved that consumer purchase attitude is capable of impacting consumers’ purchase intention, either directly, or indirectly through alternative variables (e.g., health consciousness, environmental concern, food safety, as well as taste) (C.L. Hsu et al., 2017; K.H. Lee et al., 2015; Nguyen et al., 2019; Q. Pham et al., 2018). Given the important ways in which consumer purchase attitude impacts consumers’ purchase intention, and other studies regarding green/organic food purchase intention, Lin and Huang (2012) claimed that gaining a full insight into consumer purchase attitude can help policy makers, producers, and marketers boost green purchase habits and stimulate the consumption of green/ organic products. Thus, purchase attitude is studied as one of the vital individual factors to probe into its predictive power on purchase intention in the field of China’s organic food market. For this reason, the following hypothesis is proposed: Hypothesis 1: Purchase attitude significantly influences organic food purchase intention. ●Health consciousness and purchase intention Health consciousness can measure the readiness to undertake health actions (Becker et al., 1977). Accordingly, health consciousness is highly considered a critical dimension involved in perceived food quality, frequently discussed with consumers’ purchase intention in relation to food products (Findling et al., 2018; Kang et al., 2015; Abdul Latiff et al. 2016). Under attributes contained in organic food (i.e., no artificial ingredients, no preservatives, no harmful chemicals, and no GMO), consumers with strong health consciousness are inclined to pursue healthier food (e.g., organic food in their daily life), so health consciousness is a critical driving factor effectively motivating consumers to purchase organic food (Nasir & Karakaya, 2014; Rao et al., 2020; Shaharudin et al., 2010; Wang et al., 2019). Besides, existing studies found that the reason for purchasing organic food displays a tight association with its nutrition value perceived by consumers, numerous consumers hold that Li & Jaharuddin, Cogent Business & Management (2021), 8: 1876296 https://doi.org/10.1080/23311975.2021.1876296 Page 4 of 26 organic food contains more overall nutrition, more fiber, roughage, and more vitamin as opposed to conventional-produced food, and even it is not basically evidenced that organic food outperforms conventional food in terms of nutrition value (Curvelo et al., 2019; Nguyena et al., 2020; Shahriari et al., 2019; Smith-Spangler et al., 2012). Thus, perceived nutrition value is another critical cognition included in health consciousness, capable of driving consumers’ intention of purchasing organic food. In the context of China, food scandals definitely threaten Chinese consumers’ mind when considering food choice (Wu & Zhu, 2014). Thus, whether from the perspectives of attributes of organic food or perceived nutrition value of organic food, health consciousness should be taken as another individual factor to study its effect on consumers’ intention of purchasing organic food. Therefore, the following hypothesis is proposed: Hypothesis 2: Health consciousness significantly influences organic food purchase intention. ●Hedonism and purchase intention The term—hedonism is associated with the concept of hedonistic consumption, indicating consumers’ consumption behavior from the perspectives of multisensory, appealing, pleasure, and fantasy from relevant products (Hirschman & Holbrook, 1982). As a result, hedonism is considered a type of pleasure and sensuous satisfaction for individuals (Grunert & Juhl, 1995). According to Pohjanheimo et al. (2010), personal values are significantly stable individual factors rooted in people’s lives, usually guiding people’s behavior through attitude or other motives. For instance, it can be seen that hedonistic reason has been proven to drive consumers’ attitude and purchase intention regarding food choice (Audebert et al., 2006; Feil et al., 2020; H. J. Lee & Yun, 2015; Vermeir & Verbeke, 2006). For organic food marketing, taste and appealing appearance are considered the most critical elements regarding hedonistic consumption (Anisimova, 2016; Huang & Lu, 2016; Kemp et al., 2010; Nasir & Karakaya, 2014; Sandhya & Nair, 2019). For instance, Paul & Rana (2012) stated that organic food taste displays a close relationship to consumers’ overall satisfaction and purchase intention. In China, one of the significant reasons for purchasing organic food is considered “better taste”, which implies organic food is perceived to have better taste than conventional food (Yin et al., 2010). In line with the present study, J. Chen et al. (2014) also indicated that taste as a critical attribute in sensory appeal shows a great impact on consumers’ intention of purchasing organic food. Moreover, appealing appearance is extensively discussed with consumers’ hedonistic consumption when purchasing organic food. According to M. Massey et al. (2018), when searching for organic food, consumers place stress on appearance. Also, in studies of online shopping behavior for organic food, the result demonstrated that age, income, and willingness to pay for organic food importantly attach to appearance of it (Bryła, 2018). Thus, it is necessary to further determine the relationship between hedonism and intention of purchasing organic food in the context of China’s organic food market, which is rarely mentioned in existing literatures. Thus, the hypothesis is proposed as follows: Hypothesis 3: Hedonistic motivation significantly influences organic food purchase intention. 3.2. Influences of social factors on purchase intention ●Self-perceived vegetarian and purchase intention Vegetarian displays a tight association with the term of vegetarianism, vegetarianism is defined as a type of cognition and emotional response in relation to food choice, interpreted as an indicator of identity (Twigg, 1979). Therefore, vegetarian refers to individual’s diet practice based on vegetarianism (merriamwebster.com). Given relevant definition, vegetarian diet Li & Jaharuddin, Cogent Business & Management (2021), 8: 1876296 https://doi.org/10.1080/23311975.2021.1876296 Page 5 of 26 excludes various meat, fish, poultry, and any productions of slaughter, so grains, vegetables, fruits, and nuts turn out to be the main food choices for vegetarians (vegsoc.org). Recently, vegetarianism arouses extensive concerns from increasing people in society for various reasons. According to the study by Beardsworth and Keil (1991), vegetarians’ principal motives are identified as aspects of spiritual, health, gustatory, ecological, and moral. Among the mentioned motives, heath and ecological aspects are extensively discussed with food choice. In relevant studies, considerable consumers hold that being a vegetarian would significantly benefit their health in a long term, greatly driving them to purchase healthy food (Hoek et al., 2004; Hartmann et al., 2018; J. Park et al., 2020). The significance of relationship between ecological concern and vegetarian is also found in existing studies by asserting that consumers with a strong ecological awareness are inclined to purchase meat-free products and be vegans (Fan et al., 2019; Iris et al., 2018; Mullee et al., 2017; Raggiotto et al., 2018). Concerned with attributes of organic food (e.g., healthier, ecological-oriented, and environmental-friendly), vegetarian consumers’ intention of purchasing organic food is also driven based on the attributes. According to Hoek et al. (2004), compared with non-vegetarian consumers, vegetarian consumers are more willing to purchase healthy and organic food as their diet choices than non-vegetarian consumers. The present study result is supported by Onyango et al. (2007), claiming that vegetarian-vegan is considered a critical consumption group in enhancing consumers’ regular intention of purchasing organic food. Moreover, for socio-demographic information, latest studies also explicated that vegetarian group takes up a big proportion of organic food consumers (Baudry et al., 2016; Raghavendra, 2016; Saraiva et al., 2020; Simões-Wüst et al., 2017). Nonetheless, self-perceived vegetarian remains less studied as a vital social factor in relation to organic food purchase intention with quantitative research, so researchers seek to probe into the direct effect of self-perceived vegetarian on organic food purchase intention in China’s market. For this reason, the following hypothesis is proposed: Hypothesis 4: Self-perceived vegetarian significantly influences organic food purchase intention. ●Environmentalism and purchase intention Based on Merriam–Webster Dictionary, environmentalism is defined as “advocacy of the preservation, restoration, or improvement of the natural environment, especially the movement to control pollution” (merriamwebster.com). On that basis, in the field of food marketing, environmental concern, derived from definition of environmentalism, is highly considered the critical driving factor towards local/green/ecological/organic food purchase intention as environmentalists are reluctant to purchase chemicals and pesticides used products in market (Albayrak et al., 2013; Hughner et al., 2007; Jolly, 1990; Lee, 2010). Specific to green purchase behavior, existing study results suggested that consumers with a strong environmental awareness are more willing to purchase green products on a day-to-day basis, as compared with consumers without such an awareness (Arttachariya, 2012; Gilg et al., 2005; Mostafa, 2007). Likewise, the important role of environmental consciousness in motivating consumers to purchase local and organic food is supported. In a relevant study by Nie and Zepeda (2011), environmental concern, knowledge, and practices are identified as the key determinant elements in driving consumers’ intention of purchasing localproduced and organic food. In line with the present study, Hjelmar (2011) conducted an in-depth interview regarding motives of organic food choice, the study result revealed that animal welfare and environmentalism embedded in ethical concerns are two typical motives of choosing organic food. In addition, the important role of environmental concern in shaping consumers’ attitude and intention of purchasing organic food was supported by other recent studies (Kushwah et al., 2019; Le-Anh & Li & Jaharuddin, Cogent Business & Management (2021), 8: 1876296 https://doi.org/10.1080/23311975.2021.1876296 Page 6 of 26 Nguyen-To, 2020; Nasir & Karakaya, 2014). For the important status of environmental consciousness in studies of behavior of purchasing organic food, the following hypothesis is proposed: Hypothesis 5: Environmental concern significantly influences organic food purchase intention. 3.3. Influences of information factors on purchase intention ●Labeling and purchase intention According to Alvensleben (1998), organic labeling interprets a type of quality information among consumers, which would encourage consumers to develop positive attitude towards organic foods. Makatouni (2002) also found that organic food labeling is considered a typical symbol in assessing process-related quality of organic food in the food market. Based on the informative function of labeling, O’Fallon et al. (2007) demonstrated that the significance of organic labeling helps consumers to make rational and informed purchase decisions on organic foods. In support, Żakowska- Biemans (2011) stated that particular logos and labeling can lift market visibility and expose more information regarding organic foods, by which consumers’ trust and purchase willingness to organic foods are progressively motivated. In line with this study, Liang (2016) revealed that organic food labeling positively impacts consumers’ trust and confidence in organic food. Existing studies found that the role of organic food labeling is frequently explored with purchase attitude, trust and purchase intention. C. C. Teng and Wang (2015) suggested that organic labeling information perceived by consumers critically impacts consumers’ trust towards organic food, which in turn significantly impacts their attitude and intention of purchasing organic food. In organic food market, labeling certificate acting as a reliable signal informs attributes of organic food (i.e., natural, healthy, and safe) (Almli et al., 2019; Drexler et al., 2018; T. H. Pham et al., 2019; McEachern et al., 2005), thereby significantly forging consumers’ intention of purchasing organic food in a positive manner (Atkinson & Rosenthal, 2014; Tung et al., 2012). Thus, the hypothesis is proposed as follows: Hypothesis 6: Labeling significantly influences organic food purchase intention. ●Social media information and purchase intention Social media is defined as an online application program, platform, or mass media tool capable of facilitating communication, collaboration, or sharing information among users (Bilgin, 2018). Currently, a wide range of social media tools have been used increasingly for their benefits of perceived convenience, effectiveness, and perceived credibility (Yogesh & Yesha, 2014). Consequently, a growing number of consumers are highly engaged with social media platforms (e.g., Facebook, Youtube, Twitter, Instagram, Sina Weibo, and Tiktok) to acquire sufficient information regarding products (Alalwan et al., 2017; Haenlein et al., 2020; N. Kim & Kim, 2018; Latiff & Safiee, 2015). More importantly, in China, internet economy has boomed with the great support by 5 G internet service, and considerable Chinese consumers are enthusiastic about activities of “live streaming shopping” and “sec-killing interaction” (snapping up products in a limited time) enabled by various social media platforms when purchasing target products (Lv et al., 2018; Y. R. R. Chen, 2017; Y. Sun et al., 2019). Thus, social media information disclosed by various social media platforms intensively is suggested to drive consumers’ intention of purchasing particular products. The significant impact of social media information on consumers’ purchase intention is reflected by numerous values. For online purchase, Sin et al. (2012) showed that perceived usefulness of social media information is considered the critical factor affecting consumers’ purchase intention towards online shopping, with the result also supported by relevant studies Li & Jaharuddin, Cogent Business & Management (2021), 8: 1876296 https://doi.org/10.1080/23311975.2021.1876296 Page 7 of 26 NFI = 0.851 (greater than 0.8), indicating an incremental fit. Besides parsimonious fit, Relative χ 2 = 1.607 (less than 5), which also indicates a good fit. 6.3. Structural model Based on proposed hypotheses 1–7, the structural equation model was applied to determine the relationships between exogenous and endogenous latent variables by using AMOS 24.0. The structural model is shown in Figure 2. Consequently, the Goodness-of-fit indices of structural model are listed in Table 5 as well: Chi-Square χ 2 = 1060.244, df = 621, Relative χ 2 = 1.707, p = 0.000, GFI = 0.824, CFI = 0.924; NFI = 0.836; IFI = 0.925, TLI = 0.919, RMSEA = 0.050. According to Hair et al. (2006), structural model meets the overall fitness if any three or four fit indices reached benchmark, thus, proposed structure model of the present study fitted the data well. Table 6 illustrates the test outcomes of proposed hypotheses 1–7. In terms of individual factors, purchase intention was significantly predicted by purchase attitude (β = 0.174, p < 0.05) and health consciousness (β = 0.172, p < 0.05), while it was not predicted by hedonistic motivation (β = 0.020, p > 0.05). Therefore, H1and H2 were supported, H3 was not supported. For social factors, purchase intention was significantly predicted by self-perceived vegetarian (β = 0.184, p < 0.05) and environmental concern (β = 0.198, p < 0.05). Thus, H4 and H5 were supported. Besides social factors, purchase intention was significantly predicted by labeling (β = 0.295, p < 0.01) and social media information (β = 0.146, p < 0.05). Thus, H6 and H7 were supported. Meanwhile, by comparing the standardized path coefficients, it was found that purchase attitude (β = 0.174), environmental concern (β = 0.198), and labeling (β = 0.295) exerted more significant impacts on purchase intention than the other background factors. Figure 2. Structural equation model depicting the influences of background factors on purchase intention. Table 5. Structural model fit indices Fit Index χ 2 /df RMSEA CFI NFI GFI TLI Value 1.707 0.050 0.924 0.836 0.824 0.919 Benchmark < 5.0 < 0.08 > 0.90 > 0.80 > 0.80 > 0.90 Sources: Browne and Cudeck (1993), Joreskog and Sorbom (1984), Bentler and Bonett (1980), and Bollen (1989). Li & Jaharuddin, Cogent Business & Management (2021), 8: 1876296 https://doi.org/10.1080/23311975.2021.1876296 Page 14 of 26 Table 6. Path coefficients and hypotheses outcomes (H1—H7) Hypothesized Path Standardized Regression Weights Beta S.E. C.R. p Result H1: PA → PI 0.174* 0.057 2.545 0.011 Supported H2: HC → PI 0.172* 0.049 2.559 0.010 Supported H3: HED → PI 0.020 0.053 0.303 0.762 Not supported H4: SPV → PI 0.184* 0.052 2.757 0.006 Supported H5: ENV → PI 0.198* 0.053 2.941 0.003 Supported H6: LAB → PI 0.259* 0.054 4.049 0.000 Supported H7: SMI → PI 0.146* 0.038 2.258 0.024 Supported Notes: *Significant at the level 0.05, S.E. = standardized error, C.R. = t-value, PA = Purchase Attitude, HC = Health Consciousness, HED = Hedonic Motivation, SPV = Self-Perceived Vegetarian, ENV = Environmental Concern, LAB = Labeling, SMI = Social Media Information, PI = Purchase Intention. Li & Jaharuddin, Cogent Business & Management (2021), 8: 1876296 https://doi.org/10.1080/23311975.2021.1876296 Page 15 of 26 6.4. Moderation analysis In the present study, SPSS PROCESS Macro was employed to determine the effect of WOM moderating the relationship between purchase intention and purchase decision. Prior to examining the moderating effect of WOM, regression analysis was conducted to confirm the relationship between purchase intention and purchase decision via SPSS. Table 7 indicates the significant association of purchase decision with purchase intention (t = 7.556, p = 0.000, 95% CI = [1.026, 2.118]). Hence, H8 was supported. Table 7 also indicates that WOM significantly moderated the relationship between purchase intention and purchase decision (t = 0.346, p = 0.001, 95% CI = [0.140, 0.551]). Therefore, H8 was supported at the level of p < 0.05. Notably, the mentioned finding revealed that purchase intention was greater or elevated as impacted by the interaction of WOM, i.e., WOM as a moderator deepened the relationship between purchase intention and purchase decision. Furthermore, to determine the significant interaction effect of WOM moderating the relationship between purchase intention and purchase decision, interaction scatterplot was drawn based on statistic result. According to Figure 3, the relationship between purchase intention and purchase decision was stronger under the high effect of WOM than under the low effect of WOM. Table 7. Moderation effect of WOM outcome (H8—H9) Hypothesized Relationship Std Beta Std Error t-value p LLCI ULCI Result H8: PI → PD 0.550 0.056 7.556 0.000* 1.026 2.118 Supp orted H9: PI * WOM → PD 0.346 0.105 3.308 0.001* 0.140 0.551 Supported Notes: *Significant at the level 0.05, PI = Purchase Intention, WOM = Word-of-mouth, PD = Purchase Decision. Figure 3. Moderation effect of WOM interaction scatterplot. Li & Jaharuddin, Cogent Business & Management (2021), 8: 1876296 https://doi.org/10.1080/23311975.2021.1876296 Page 16 of 26 7. Discussion As study findings disclosed in above section, the proposed hypotheses were successfully supported by theory of planned behavior (TPB) and reasoned action model (RAM) (Ajzen, 1991; Fishbein & Ajzen, 2011). Overall, with the theoretical support of TPB and application of RAM, consumers’ intention of purchasing organic food was significantly motivated by majority of background factors from individual, social, and information perspectives. More importantly, the study result also found that purchase intention—purchase decision gap was successfully filled by the moderating role of WOM. To be specific, in terms of individual factors, it can be seen that consumers’ intention of purchasing organic food was greatly driven by purchase attitude and health consciousness, while it was not associated with hedonistic motivation factor proposed in the present study. By looking to existing studies, the significant relationship between attitude and purchase intention complied with the existing study by Kitcharoen (2018), indicating consumers’ attitude towards organic food as a critical predictor of purchase intention during the online and offline purchase of organic food. Besides, the effect of health consciousness, i.e., one of indispensable personal values on organic food purchase intention, was noticeably supported by scholars previously (Michaelidou & Hassan, 2008; Wang et al., 2019; S. Y. Hsu et al., 2016). However, this finding revealed no significant relationship between hedonistic motivation and organic food purchase intention, inconsistent with existing studies by Anisimova (2016), Katt and Meixner (2020) and Olsen et al. (2012). This might be explained as Chinese consumers are less likely to focus on attributes given by organic food (e.g., taste, smell and appealing appearance), i.e., Chinese consumers perceived hedonic aspects as slight factors compared with other driving factors when considering to purchase organic food. In support, a consistent study by Y. M. Teng and Wu (2019) in Taipei city, Taiwan indicated that consumers perceived utilitarian value as the determinant factor, rather than hedonic value regarding green restaurant consumption intention. Specific to social factors, the study findings supported that self-perceived vegetarian and environmental concern could significantly drive consumers’ intention of purchasing organic food. In existing studies, self-perceived vegetarian used to be studied as socio-demographic information to identify diet habit or lifestyle of organic food consumers (Gracia Royo & de-Magistris, 2007; Stobbelaar et al., 2007; Tung et al., 2015). In the present study, however, self-perceived vegetarian was explored as a vital independent variable with purchase intention by quantitative research method, helping confirm that proposed relationship between self-perceived vegetarian and intention of purchasing organic food exactly existed. Furthermore, the significant relationship between environmental concern and purchase intention was also identified in majority of studies on organic/green/local/ecological purchase behavior (Albayrak et al., 2013; Asif et al., 2018; Hughner et al., 2007). Besides information factors, the study findings supported the proposed hypotheses, i.e., organic food purchase intention is significantly impacted by labeling and social media information. In line with existing studies, Ayyub et al. (2018) suggested that organic labeling was considered an indicator of organic food quality, which greatly elevated consumers trust towards purchasing organic food. Furthermore, previous scholars such as Ellison et al. (2016) and Sörqvist et al. (2015) also claimed that consumers perceived organic products with organic labels are healthier than that without organic labels, consequently consumers’ intention of purchasing organic food was driven by products with organic labels. In the context of China, the impact of social media information (marketing) on consumers’ intention of purchasing particular products was increasingly witnessed with the support of 5 G mobile internet (Lv et al., 2018; Y. R. R. Chen, 2017). Accordingly, the similar finding went to the present study, consumers’ intention of purchasing organic food was also largely motivated through massive information spread in varieties of social media platforms as more and more consumers relied on gathering sufficient information from social media Apps. This opinion was supported by Kumar et al. (2020), asserting that higher accessibility of information provided by social media apps had a big impact on consumers’ purchase intention in food and beverage industry in Malaysia. Li & Jaharuddin, Cogent Business & Management (2021), 8: 1876296 https://doi.org/10.1080/23311975.2021.1876296 Page 17 of 26 Based upon the findings, existing studies related to the role of WOM and electronic word-of- mouth (eWOM) in influencing consumers’ purchase intention and purchase decision can be seen from different scholars (Erkan & Evans, 2016; Y. F. Kuo et al., 2013; M. K. Lee et al., 2011; Levy & Gvili, 2019; Munir et al., 2018). For instance, Y. F. Kuo et al. (2013) showed that positive WOM adversely moderated the relationship between consumer inertia and repurchase intention, but positively moderated that between satisfaction and repurchase intention. Nonetheless, very little study further explored the intention—behavior (decision) gap by adding WOM as moderation in studying consumers’ behavior of purchasing organic food. In the present study, the study result indicated that WOM significantly displayed the moderating effect on relationship between organic food purchase intention and purchase decision, which revealed that the relationship between consumers’ purchase intention and purchase decision on organic food was able to be enhanced by moderating effect of WOM. 8. Conclusion In the present study, the empirical findings supported that consumers’ intention of purchasing organic food was significantly impacted by majority of proposed background factors from perspectives of individual (i.e., purchase attitude and health consciousness), social (i.e., self-perceived vegetarian and environmentalism), and information (i.e., labeling and social media information) by combined use of theory of planned behavior (TPB) and reasoned action model (RAM). Lastly, the purchase intention—purchase decision gap regarding behavior of purchasing organic food was filled by incorporating moderating role of WOM, which supported that the relationship between purchase intention and purchase decision on organic food was enhanced by WOM. 9. Study implications 9.1. Theoretical implications The present study makes contributions on exploring consumers’ purchase intention and purchase decision on organic food by categorizing factors into different types of background factors (i.e., individual, social, and information) based on combined use of theory of planned behavior (TPB) and reasoned action model (RAM), by which, it was able to study consumers’ purchase intention by more holistic and systematic ways. Furthermore, the present study primarily incorporates moderating role of WOM in proposed relationship between purchase intention and purchase decision to investigate intention—behavior (decision) gap existing in TPB. As the result, WOM showed its moderating role in relationship between purchase intention and purchase decision on organic food, which fills in research blank in the field of consumers’ purchase behavior towards organic food. 9.2. Practical implications In the context of China, the present study makes practical implications in several ways. In terms of individual background factors, purchase attitude and health consciousness are considered key factors that drive consumers to purchase organic food. Therefore, marketers and policy makers could pay more attention on conducting kinds of propagandas to emphasize the health concept brought by organic food, which can shape consumers’ purchase attitude towards organic food by a positive way. As study finding showed, Chinese consumers are not sensitive to hedonic aspect in organic food, thus, marketers might reduce the costs in making exquisite packaging. Instead, it might be possible for marketers to convey utilitarian values (i.e., non-pesticide, non-contaminated, and non-chemical fertilizer used) of organic food to drive Chinese consumers’ intention of purchasing organic food. Specific to social factors, consumers’ intention of purchasing organic food displays a tight association with self-perceived vegetarian and environmental concern, which implies vegetarians and environmentalists advocate the healthy and environmental-friendly concepts rooted in organic food. For stimulating organic food purchase intention among vegetarian consumers, marketing activities should stress vegetarians’ daily diet needs and special diet preferences (e.g., healthier materials, ecological-oriented productive process, and environmental-friendly consumerist). Likewise, for environmentalist consumers, organic food consumption community can be Li & Jaharuddin, Cogent Business & Management (2021), 8: 1876296 https://doi.org/10.1080/23311975.2021.1876296 Page 18 of 26 created by marketers to share kinds of environmental-friendly production processes related to organic food to attract more consumers who hold the similar consumption values to join, by which, consumers’ purchase intention is intensively motivated. With regards to information factors, both labeling and social media information play significant impacts on consumers’ intention of purchasing organic food. As aforementioned, labeling somehow indicates products quality and trust in consumers mind, due to this, organic food association should disclose as much credible information as possible in organic food label about how organic food materials are grown, processed, and inspected by specialized institution, as an attempt to increase consumers’ trust and confidence in purchasing organic food. Since social media information posted in social media Apps are progressively browsed by consumers, this provides an opportunity for marketers to exploit it to launch social media marketing activities from various perspectives (i.e., entertainment, informativeness, customization, and interaction). As a result, as supported by social media marketing, the relationship between organic food providers and customers gets closer, by which consumers’ purchase preferences is able to be captured more accurately by marketers. As indicated from the study result, WOM critically deepens the relationship between purchase intention and purchase decision. Given this finding, notably comments and reviews related to organic food given by consumers who had consumption experience successfully impact others purchase decision on organic food. Accordingly, organic food marketers should take marketing effort on attracting more potential consumers by building channels either by online or offline to encourage organic food consumers to share comments, suggestions and feedbacks regarding organic food after purchasing. It is noteworthy that marketers should manage WOM reviews by topping the list with positive WOM reviews and coping with negative WOM reviews with a good attitude, thereby helping strengthen trust and purchase confidence of consumers intended to purchase organic food. 10. Limitations and future study directions Though the present study makes several contributions on extant study fields from theoretical and practical perspectives, few study limitations remain to be concerned subsequently. First, the present study only selected background factors been frequently discussed in existing literatures, the other background factors (e.g., personality, mood, religion, education, and intervention) require further exploration to study consumers’ purchase behavior towards organic food more precisely. In addition, intention–behavior gap was somehow ignored when studying consumers’ purchase behavior towards particular products, while WOM was just identified as one of moderating roles in the relationship between purchase intention and purchase decision in organic food purchase. For this reason, subsequent studies could explore more alternative moderations capable of filling in the gap as aforesaid. Second, as impacted by unknown sampling frame, sample size was determined by non-probability sampling method. Furthermore, it was noticed that unbalanced sample happened based on age group, i.e., very limited respondents distributed in the age group 18–24, 45–54, and over 55. Hence, subsequent studies might focus on larger sample size to make study be more representative to alleviate sample bias problem. Third, concerned with time restriction, questionnaires were distributed in organic food stores where only located in Chaoyang district, Beijing. Therefore, subsequent studies are suggested to broaden questionnaire distribution areas and other cities from China to approach more different respondents, which is conducive to increasing the study accuracy. Funding The authors received no direct funding for this research. Author details Shimiao Li 1 E-mail: [email protected] ORCID ID: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8595-8282 Nor Siah Jaharuddin 1 ORCID ID: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2772-0556 1 Department of Management and Marketing, School of Business and Economics, University Putra Malaysia, Serdang, Malaysia. Citation information Cite this article as: Influences of background factors on consumers’ purchase intention in China’s organic food market: Assessing moderating role of word-of-mouth (WOM), Shimiao Li & Nor Siah Jaharuddin, Cogent Business & Management (2021), 8: 1876296. Li & Jaharuddin, Cogent Business & Management (2021), 8: 1876296 https://doi.org/10.1080/23311975.2021.1876296 Page 19 of 26 References Abdul Latiff, Z. A. B., Rezai, G., Mohamed, Z., & Amizi Ayob, M. (2016). Food labels’ impact assessment on consumer purchasing behavior in Malaysia. Journal of food products marketing, 22(2), 137–146. https://doi. org/10.1080/10454446.2013 Abdul Latiff, Z. A. 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